It was the morning of Wednesday the 18th of July, the boys from Corpus Christi College and Willetton HS wake up and begin their normal morning routine for a not so normal day at school. They packed their school bag with their laptop, books, lunch and football boots because today was the day of the Year 8/9 Schoolboys Eagles Division East Fremantle District Final. It was a big day for all the boys involves with the winner going on to verse the winner of CBC Fremantle vs Ellenbrook HS in the Eagles Division Quarter Finals on Monday the 30th of July. The day was moving along steadily for the boys, getting more and more excited as the day goes on. Every class throughout the day their butterflies get worse and worse.

Finally the school day has ended, and the teams were preparing for the big game. The umpires have arrived, the shield has arrived, parents are arriving, its shaping out to be an exciting contest for all. Mitch Harvey the East Fremantle Development Officer brings the two teams together to address them on the days proceedings and to congratulate them on getting to this stage. Willetton HS won the toss and chose to kick to the South Street end. The coaches pulled in their players to give them a final address before the starting siren. The boys jog out into positions, shake hands with their opponents and wait for the ball to be tossed up into the air.

The siren goes to begin the game, Willetton kicks the first goal of the game before a fightback from Corpus Christi to finish the first half on close terms, it is looking to be an interesting last half. The umpires walk back out onto the ground with the players not far behind, every is set for the final quarter. It was a dominating display by Corpus Christi in the last half controlling the tempo of the game for the majority of the half.
It was a great display of football with lots of ooo's and ahhh's throughout the game. The final result was Corpus Christi running out convincing winners against Willetton where the scoreboard didn't reflect the contest of the game. Well done to both teams on a great game, and great sportsmanship.

Junior football may have changed in recent times however a constant has remained; the strength of the umpires hailing from the East Fremantle district. Since the introduction of the Fremantle Conference (formally the Southern Conference) East Fremantle umpires have had the opportunity to umpire in other disciplines whether that is in the field or on the boundary or in the goal.

The conference system has been able to provide greater opportunities to the East Fremantle umpires where they can learn their craft and hopefully progress through the umpiring pathway. In 2018 the East Fremantle Umpires have 151 umpires on the books highlighting the need to be able to umpire in all facets of the game. The panel consists of multicultural and umpires of diverse backgrounds, young boys and girls who are new to the game and some older umpires who have been on the panel a number of years. The panel age range from 13 years old to 25 years old. The pathway has seen many sharks progress through the pathway and achieve ultimate success in their relative short umpiring careers.

In recent time, shark alumni of Alex Martin, Kyle Sinclair, Ryan Sinclair and Mark Worobec have seen WAFL League Final action. Kyle Sinclair running the last three WAFL League Grand Finals 2015-17 on the boundary with Mark Worobec umpiring the 2016 League decider.

Junior Umpire Coaching & Leadership.

On a junior umpire coaching front future rising stars and current WAFL Colts umpires in the field Josh Antulov, Jack Meotti & Alex Crowhurst continue to impress on the field as well as off the field too. These young men have taken up coaching roles and mentoring the next generation of first year umpires which has been fantastic for the district. These young men have taken the lead from the stellar work of current WAFL Reserves umpire Curt Miller, Alec Moylan who has taken a year away from the rigours of WAFL football and Haris Cooper who relocated to Darwin for work. Coaching our Saturday Squad umpires is David Gaynor who has replaced the long serving Jordie Morgan-Hind. Gaynor has brought enthusiasm to the role and has continued the great work of Morgan-Hind. Our Senior Sunday umpires are coached by Mark Holford who currently does WAFL Reserves whose expertise are greatly appreciated to the umpiring panel. Holford is ably assisted by another rising star in the WAFL in James Wilkinson, both Wilkinson and Holford challenge the group to be better and understand the fundamentals of umpiring. Our boundary umpires are coached by three time WAFL League Grand Final Umpire Kyle Sinclair with our Goal umpires coached by WAFL League Goal Umpire Tiana Fry.

We have also had the fortune of using the retired WAFL Umpire Manager/AFL Assistant Coach Darryl Sinclair in a coaching coordinator role. Since retiring in late 2017 Darryl’s expertise and knowledge of umpiring has been utilised with our up and coming coaches ensuring we have a proactive support network for our umpire coaches in the East Fremantle district.

On the national stage.

Further to this, since the inception of the National AFL Women’s competition our sharks have excelled on the national stage. Tiana Fry and Gabby Simmonds both being on the national panel since its inception and Kyle Sinclair from 2018. Furthermore officiating in the AFL are former sharks Jeff Dalgleish and Luke Farmer (both field umpires) both of which donate the umpiring association with trophies for the end of season awards night and boundary umpires Josh Garrett and the most recent of our shark debutants in the AFL Sean Moylan.

Season 2018 has continued the trend of recent seasons with former sharks excelling on their umpiring pathway. This year has seen current East Fremantle Goal Umpires Coach Tiana Fry represent the state at AFL Women’s Under 18 Championships in the goals. Likewise, Jordan Fry and Cameron Jones represented the state in the field at the AFL Under 16 Championships. Finally, Jordan Russell represented the state at the AFL Under 18 Championships on the boundary. This again demonstrating the quality of umpires and people originating from the East Fremantle district.

At the community and state levels.

Our sharks are doing very well in the umpiring pathway whether it at state level or through community football or being a part of development squads. We have a number of up and coming umpires in the WAFL Development Squad, the names of Conor Mannix, Robert Abrahams and Jack McCarthy will hopefully progress onto the WAFL squad in coming years.

Officiating on the boundary in WAFL Colts and Reserves we have Nicholas Veletta, Luke Shaw and Daniel Kempson all applying themselves on the boundary. In WAFL League we have the Sinclair brothers in Ryan and Kyle and Jordan Russell. Waving the flags we have Tiana Fry who has cracked league football in 2018 and a rising star in Luke Caifano. In the field sharks that have reached WAFL League level are McLane Edinger, Jordan Fry, Alex Martin, Curtis Snadden & Mark Worobec. Sharks that have reached WAFL Reserves level are Caillin Gibson, Mark Holford, Cameron Jones, Curt Miller & James Wilkinson. Likewise sharks that have reached WAFL Colts are Josh Antulov, Alex Crowhurst & Jack Meotti.

It is a pleasure to have quality umpires but more importantly quality people coming back to their grassroots and providing leadership and mentoring for the next generation of junior umpires. The men and women continue to inspire and mentor the next wave of talent and hopefully can reach their goals in umpiring.

It is sensational that these young men and women have bought back into their district and continue to drive the positive culture and standards that are enriched within the East Fremantle District Junior Umpires.

The 2018 AFL 9's Season started off with some great news with teams being told they will get to play at the new Fremantle Dockers Training Facilities (Victor George Kailis Oval), Cockurn Arc.
Nine teams registered to be among the first to play on an AFL quality training field.

It was a long hard fought season with all teams showing up every Wednesday night looking forward to their games. Soon enough the end of the season was in site and teams are hustling for top position on the ladder. Going into the last week of games before finals, there were five teams all in reach of grasping onto a grand final appearance. The results were in... the two teams that had reached the grand final were Don't Argue and the South Metro Stallions. Both of these teams have a previous history against one another having played in several seasons together, so it was shaping out to be a hard fought game. As for the other teams they would verse the next closest team to them on the ladder (3 vs 4, 5 vs 6 etc).

The big night had finally arrived, teams were rocking up to play their final game and to see who would be crowned the Cockburn AFL 9's Summer Champions. The first half was an absolute thriller with the South Metro Stallions 2.0 - 12 leading Don't Argue 1.4 - 11 at the break. The Stallions taking full opportunity of their chances in the first half with Don't Argue letting themselves down with their inaccuracy in front of goal. The second half was a different story to the first with Don't Argue fixing their woes in front of the goals, kicking 4.4 - 28 in the half with the Stallions kicking 2.0 - 12. With the final scores being Don't Argue 5.9 - 39 defeating the South Metro Stallions 4.0 - 24. It was a fantastic game to watch with both teams putting on an AFL 9's master class for the ages.